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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941729">The Secret Ingredient is Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissLiveByThePen/pseuds/MissLiveByThePen'>MissLiveByThePen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>KyluxAdvent2020 [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Inspired by The Great British Bake Off, Jedi Ben Solo, M/M, Sappy, Senator Armitage Hux, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, baking as a love language</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:08:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>800</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941729</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissLiveByThePen/pseuds/MissLiveByThePen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In order to raise money for the Arkanis Orphanage fund, Senator Armitage Hux agrees to join his planet's annual baking competition. Oh, it's also because of that ridiculously handsome, idiotic Jedi.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armitage Hux/Ben Solo, Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>KyluxAdvent2020 [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035960</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Secret Ingredient is Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Welcome to another episode of the Great Arkanis Bake-off: Celebrity Edition,”  Dopheld Mitaka chirped towards the camera that was currently streaming the episode to millions of holonet viewers. The mousy, dark-haired host was a quick favorite this season as he interacted with the bakers. He was becoming known for his comforting words and quick wit and as a sweet opposite to the often meticulous and downright cruel judge, Phasma. “This week is our cake week and we’re asking our bakers to create a tribute to the most important people in their lives. Bakers will have six hours to bake and decorate a cake to meet the high standards of our judges.” </p><p>Senator Armitage Hux could pay attention to the droning of the host, but his attention was on his list of instructions and ingredients. He hadn’t expected to get this far, but there was absolutely no reason for him to give up now. The only reason he was even here was because of the ridiculous taunting from Ben once he realized the senator from Arkanis had never taken part in the bake-off charity challenge. He’d claimed it was because Armitage could burn water. </p><p>Ridiculous Jedi with his ridiculously handsome face. </p><p>He wanted to prove the man wrong. He was going to prove him wrong. So far, he’d handled delicacies from around the galaxy with average success. He wasn’t an extraordinary baker by any means, but he was just good enough to skirt through the competition. He was worried about this one, though. The cake part seemed simply enough, but it was the decorations that were threatening to cause him issues. </p><p>He’d wanted to do a subtle nod to Ben for convincing him to get on this show in the first place, but he thought it would be rather obvious if he put that ridiculous fire hazard of a lightsaber anywhere on the cake. While the Jedi Council, small as it was, recognized that attachments weren’t all that bad, Armitage still didn’t know what to label the thing between him and Ben.</p><p>Yes, they’d tumbled into bed a few times and sometimes they spent the entire morning together. Sometimes Ben even met him for lunch between meetings or he’d visit the temple to watch the man train. For research purposes, obviously. Armitage’s first love would always be engineering and he’d been engineering training droids for the Jedi since he was fifteen.  </p><p>Regardless, he didn’t want to put some sappy display on the intergalactic holonet if his feelings weren’t completely returned because that would be embarrassing. He’d just have to be subtle with it. Something that no one would recognize unless they were looking for it. </p><p>He made small talk with Mitaka for a moment as he prepared his cake batter and poured the dark chocolate mix into the many cake pans. He’d chosen dark chocolate for the romantic notion that it reminded him of Ben’s eyes.</p><p>With the cakes baking in the oven, he set out to create the decorations. This was always the hardest part for him because he lacked the whole ‘artistic creativity’ thing. He could design a new droid or even a rocket, but flowy, artsy work wasn’t for him. It had gotten him dinged more than a few times by Phasma. </p><p>For this tribute, he’d decided to try something simple and elegant. A white royal icing with a thick gold braiding around the layers that would look suspiciously close to the Alderaanian braid Ben tied his hair up with whenever he was training to keep it out of his face. It had taken him weeks to learn how to braid it for Ben because it was ridiculously complicated for a hairstyle. </p><p>Once the icing and braiding was set, he’d take a brush to mark delicate words across the white icing in a mock-Calligraphy font. Try as he might, he wasn’t ever going to be as good as Ben at writing Calligraphy. The blue of the edible ink nearly matched the color of Ben’s lightsaber. It wasn’t an exact copy, but it would be close enough for him. </p><p>He’d written words of adoration across his cake. Creating a strange pattern with the loops of his letters to the point where the cake looked more marbled from afar instead of a blank canvas with words. By the time he topped it with a single sachi blossom, time had been called. </p><p>He wasn’t too disappointed when the judges acknowledged his improvement, but ultimately sent him home. He’d raised a good amount of money for the Arkanis Orphanage and did far better than expected in his bet against Ben. </p><p>If only the big idiot hadn’t greeted him at the port with a very public and very intimate kiss, no one would have ever known his cake was a declaration of love.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Comments and kudos are appreciated! :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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